Share Repurchase Plan Initiated by Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) Board of Directors

Key Points

• Cathay's board authorized a share repurchase plan, but the article's reported repurchase amount ("$150,000.00 billion") and percentage ("4,164,630.6%") appear to be typos and are implausible.
• Q1 results beat expectations: the bank reported EPS of $1.29 vs. $1.19 expected and revenue of $213.2M (+14.4% YoY), supporting the recent stock uptick.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.38 (annualized $1.52, ~2.8% yield), and insiders disclosed sales (CEO sold 4,836 shares; EVP sold 1,000), with insiders owning about 4.85% of shares.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report) announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $150,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to buy up to 4,164,630.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Cathay General Bancorp from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Cathay General Bancorp in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $53.25.

Cathay General Bancorp Price Performance

Cathay General Bancorp stock traded up $1.47 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $55.25. 424,735 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 319,773. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 0.82. Cathay General Bancorp has a 12 month low of $40.96 and a 12 month high of $55.47. The business's 50-day moving average is $50.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.76.

Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $213.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.27 million. Cathay General Bancorp had a net margin of 23.79% and a return on equity of 11.45%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Cathay General Bancorp will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cathay General Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Cathay General Bancorp's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 26th. Cathay General Bancorp's payout ratio is currently 33.48%.

Cathay General Bancorp News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Cathay General Bancorp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results beat consensus — EPS $1.29 vs. $1.19 expected and revenue $213.2M (+14.4% YoY); margins and ROE remained healthy, supporting the upbeat investor reaction. Cathay General (CATY) Q1 Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised its price target from $55 to $58 (maintaining a "market perform" rating), signaling modest analyst confidence and incremental upside in the shares. Benzinga
• Neutral Sentiment: Full earnings call transcript and management commentary are available — useful for assessing guidance, loan/ deposit trends and NIM commentary but they contain no dramatic guidance shift. Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Slide deck and official press release from the Q1 release are posted for deeper detail on results, trends and KPIs—worth reviewing for asset quality and margin drivers. Q1 Press Release / Slide Deck
• Neutral Sentiment: Some outlets used different framing of the quarter (e.g., “reports lower Q1 earnings” headlines) — this appears to be semantic or metric-specific rather than a contradiction of the EPS beat; investors should check the release for the underlying metrics. TipRanks

Insider Activity

In other Cathay General Bancorp news, EVP Thomas M. Lo sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.23, for a total transaction of $50,230.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 2,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $100,460. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Chang Liu sold 4,836 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $243,492.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 127,819 shares in the company, valued at $6,435,686.65. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 4.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Cathay General Bancorp

Cathay General Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, trading on NASDAQ under the symbol CATY. Its principal subsidiary, Cathay Bank, provides a full suite of financial services to commercial, institutional and retail clients. As a community-focused institution, the company emphasizes relationship banking and tailored solutions for businesses and individuals.

Founded in 1962 by a group of Chinese American entrepreneurs, Cathay has expanded from a single branch operation in downtown Los Angeles into one of the largest Asian-American banks in the United States.

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